Description

The Bagçesaray Palace of the Crimean Khans is a compact architectural ensemble consisting of 17 buildings and 9 inner closed courtyards. The total area of the ensemble is about 500000 square meters (including 7190 m of the built-up area).
The Bagçesaray Palace of the Crimean Khans was built in the third-fourth decades of the 16 century. The oldest dated construction of the initial ensemble bears the date of 1532, while the written records mention the Palace under 1539.
The Palace built as the main residence of the Crimean Khans (the monarchs of the Crimean Khanate - the state of the Crimean Tatar people) kept this meaning during about 250 years - from the 1530s till the collapse of the Crimean Tatar statehood in 1783.
The architectural ensemble includes two religious buildings (Big and Small Palace Mosques), official halls (Hall of the Divan or State Council, Hall of Embassies), living buildings of the khans, their retinue and families (Living and Retinue Blocks, Harem), recreational premises (Summer Arbor, Falcon Tower), auxiliary outbuildings (chambers for guards, bathes, stables, kitchen yard etc.), small architectural forms (portals, fountains and basins) and closed inner courtyards with gardens and parks.
Basically the architecture of the Palace belongs to the general cultural tradition of the Middle East harmonically interlaced with original local Crimean Tatar tradition. Decoration of the palace buildings and interiors represents various architectural and art styles spread in the Crimean Khanate in the 16th-18th centuries.
Playing the role of the main residence of the Crimean monarchs the Bagçesaray Palace
(along with neighboring capital town) was the political, religious and cultural center of
the Crimean Tatar people in the times of the Crimean Khanate.